Con Doherty & Maeve Gallagher win 2021 Sprint National Champs!

You might think that a race scheduled for late September is bound to be cold and most likely pretty autumnal weather wise. This year’s National Sprint Championships, held at Boland’s BMW Hook or by Crook, were anything but…

Calm and (relatively) warm waters greeted today’s triathletes for the swim and the sunny south east lived up to its name with unseasonally high temperatures. All this, plus top class race organising by Waterford Triathlon Club, added up to an unbeatable race atmosphere for the 500 triathletes vying for the National Championships in their age group.

The Course

As a sprint race, Boland’s BMW Hook or by Crook consists of a 750m swim, 20k bike and a 5k run. The scenic beach to beach swim starts at Dunmore East beach and exits at Councillor’s Strand. Conditions meant that almost flat calm waters awaited today’s triathletes. The infamous run up from swim exit to the transition area needs no introduction! A winding path takes the athletes from the beach to the field above, with a slight (!) elevation.

Athletes can catch their breathe in transition before embarking on the 20 kilometre bike course. While there are no major climbs on the route, the rolling nature of the course means there is no room for free wheeling or easy cruising. Out of T2 comes the second famous element of the course, the hill to the golf course. A steep climb immediately on exit lasts for approximately 200 metres.

On the two lap cross country run through the golf course, triathletes can enjoy some of the stunning sea views before coming down the finish chute under the BMW Triathlon Ireland Arch into the finisher’s area.

Gallagher Earns First Sprint National Champs Title

In the women’s race Maeve Gallagher put together an impressive performance across the three disciplines to earn the title of Sprint Distance National Champion for the first time.

A rolling start saw Gallagher choose to start near the front of her wave to get some clear water ahead of her, and she succeeded. Exiting in the chase pack that was just behind swim leader Ralf Bodamer, Gallagher had just Orla Walsh for company. Cavan Triathlon Club’s Olivia and Charlotte Moore, along with Shannon Kelly were approximately thirty seconds off the pace at this point.

Putting in her customarily strong bike split for the quickest twenty kilometres of the day, 34:58, only the challenging hill out of transition and the cross country run lay between Maeve and the top of the podium. Keeping her time trial effort strong on the run, she also had the quickest split of the women’s field for 17:28 to claim the national title.

Hoping to put in a similar performance in her home race, Mayo’s Maeve Gallagher will certainly be one to watch for next week’s Standard Distance National Champs in Westport.

Shannon Kelly is one very busy triathlete. Off the back of wins at the Mixed Team Relay National Champs in Lough Cutra and the BMW Tri Series at Hazelwood Triathlon, Shannon will race twice this weekend before heading to next week’s Standard Distance National Champs in Westport. We’re tired just thinking about it!

Currently based in Dunmore East, today was somewhat of a home race for Shannon. One of the quicker swims of the day had Kelly well set up for the bike and with Maeve Gallagher, Orla Walsh, Olivia Moore and Charlotte Moore up the road due to the rolling start, she got to work passing all but Gallagher over the 20k. Coming into the second transition over a minute back left Shannon with too much work to do on the run, however she had the second quickest five kilometres of the field in 17:59.

Doellken-O’Shea Makes Her Mark

Shauna Doellken-O’Shea has raced in just one other BMW Triathlon National Series race this year in Loughrea, where she also finished third. Today is Doellken-O’Shea’s first sprint distance championship podium, taking home the bronze in Dunmore East.

Starting in the third wave, Shauna quietly moved through the field with a consistently strong swim, bike and run. Such is the nature of a rolling start. With gaps in both in between the waves and the athletes within the waves, results can’t be final until everyone has crossed the line. For example, as Wave 3 were coming out of the water today, the leaders of Wave 1 were coming off the bike.

Orla Walsh raced in her first BMW Triathlon National Series races of 2021 today, and put in a solid performance throughout finishing in fourth, 1:15 off the podium. Orla completed last week’s Ras Na Mban representing UCD, where she won Best Young Irish Rider. Next up for Walsh is the 2021 Europe Triathlon Cup Barcelona on the 10th of October.

Doherty Wins the Men’s Race

Predator Triathlon Club’s Ralf Bodamer led Wave One out of the water with the quickest swim of the day. A chase pack containing Westport’s Aichlinn O’Reilly, Oran McGee from Muckno TC and Galway TC’s Darragh O’Neill were 20 seconds behind him on the road.

Aichlinn O’Reilly put down the fastest 20k of the entire field (31:40) to try and put as much of a gap as possible between him and his nearest rivals. For the first wave into T2, Aichlinn led Oran McGee, Niall Cornyn and Ralf Bodamer with Cork Tri’s Trevor Woods fifth on the road.

Leaving transition with Oran McGee in his sights, Niall Cornyn got into his stride and ran the only sub 15 minute run of the day. Overtaking McGee during the run, Cornyn guaranteed his podium spot and bronze in the National Championship.

Aichlinn O’Reilly held his position through the run to finish eventual second in the men’s race and silver in the Sprint Distance National Champs.

As the drama unfolded ahead of him in Wave 1, multiple-time National Champ and Team Ireland Triathlete Con Doherty got to work after starting in the third wave of athletes.

Beaten only by Ralf Bodamer over the 750 metre swim course, Doherty spent the bike and run courses moving through the field. Completing in the quickest time to become 2021 Sprint Distance National Champ, Con Doherty enjoyed racing in the rolling start.

Speaking afterwards, Doherty said;

“It’s fun in a way because you don’t really know where you are, you just have to keep going hard. It’s a different dynamic, I enjoyed it to be honest.”

Results & Image Galleries

The full results from all of today’s age group categories can be viewed on Sports Timing here.

If you’d like to view the rest of our picture galleries for Boland’s BMW Hook or by Crook, visit our Facebook page.